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F&I Showroom Magazine Articles

'Next' Practices for F&I

Don’t let so-called ‘best practices’ get in the way of your performance or your customers’ needs. The magazine’s resident F&I expert lists the 10 ‘next practices’ that are driving processes at top dealerships.

Turning Objections Into Sales

F&I managers make their living on the word "No," especially since most of their customers enter their offices armed with a variety of ways to say it. What successful F&I managers understand is that most objections are simply an indication that the customer has yet to believe he or she needs the product - or that its value exceeds the cost. Where they make their money is in their response to those objections. Your ability to overcome an objection will depend primarily on your ability to provide the customer with valid reasons why they need your products.

F&I's 10 Commandments

Starting out in F&I is never easy, but the magazine’s resident expert lays out a game plan to get F&I ‘newbies’ off on the right foot.

Upgrading to F&I 4G

The current market environment will definitely separate the survivors from the victims. F&I expert provides a road map for doing more than just weathering today’s economic storm.

When the car business is good, it’s great! Right now, however, all we’re talking about is survival. Two things happen when business is bad. First, a down market separates the survivors from the victims. Second, it creates tremendous opportunities for the survivors.

5 Roadblocks to F&I Success

The current market environment will definitely separate the survivors from the victims. F&I expert provides a road map for doing more than just weathering today’s economic storm.

Turn Up Profits In A Down Market

The current market environment will definitely separate the survivors from the victims. F&I expert provides a road map for doing more than just weathering today’s economic storm.

Capitalizing On The Used Market

The current market environment will definitely separate the survivors from the victims. F&I expert provides a road map for doing more than just weathering today’s economic storm.

Being Brilliant At The Basics

When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers in 1958, one of the first questions the local press asked him was, “What are you going to change to turn this team around after a string of failures and losing seasons?” His reply provides a window into a well-developed process of how to be successful when faced with a challenging situation.
Lombardi’s response was: “I am not going to change anything. We will use the same players, the same plays and the same training system. But we will concentrate on becoming brilliant at the basics.” In nine seasons his Green Bay Packers won five NFL Championships and two Super Bowls.

Intentional F&I Manager

An Intentional F&I Manager does things with a purpose, and on purpose.
F&I expert breaks down the game plan of successful F&I managers and
provides a few tips on how to set up your customer for an F&I sale

F&I In An X&Y World

Is your current F&I sales process adding value or alienating customers? What X customers (Born 1965-1976) & Y customers (Born 1977-1998) hate is waiting. They're impatient. They hate sales pitches, sales pressure, and someone who won't (or can't answer their questions. X & Y consumers also hate someone who wastes their time, because have less time. They're media savvy, they're skeptical, and they don't trust salespeople.

6 Things To Stop Or Start Doing

"Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny." - Mahatma Gandhi

"I am not a role-model." - Charles Barkley

8 Ways To Ditch The Pitch

Today's consumer appreciates having a knowledgeable F&I Professional help them make an informed decision about the options available in connection with their purchase. They loath listening to a sales pitch. If we're not genuinely trying to help that person across the desk make good decisions, then the F&I process is adding no value to the customer's purchase experience. It's adding aggravation.

Yes, Cash Customers Will Finance!

The most common mistake F&I managers make when it comes to cash buyers is attempting to convert them to dealership financing as soon as they discover the customer intends to pay cash for his or her vehicle. This is absolutely the WORST thing you can do with a cash buyer!

4 Ways to Change Perceptions

"The customer’s first impression of you is a tone setter for the entire transaction. So what warning signs are you putting up? This month we explore four ways to put your customer at ease."

Start Training Your Sales Managers

In every dealership, the sales department and F&I department are supposed to be on the same team. Unfortunately, in many dealerships you wouldn’t know it, because there is virtually no communication between the sales manager and F&I manager on a deal before, during, or after it goes to F&I. The only way to get a sales manager to change his behavior is to get him to want to change it.

Listen Up!

Customers have something to say. Customers will provide all the reasons they need the products you are offering if you ask the right questions and wait for their response. This makes them feel respected and engaged in the buying process.

30 Questions You Need To Ask

Every successful F&I manager knows that customers prefer talking to listening. In my experience, I can say the best F&I managers talk the least. The more time you spend listening to the customer, the more they feel you care about them, and understand their situation. Customers buy an F&I product not because they understand it, but because they feel you understand them.

Quoting Payments--The Rules, Risks & Getting It Right

When it comes to quoting payments, the sales and F&I process has to change. The old "quote 'em an inflated payment, peel 'em off the ceiling and see what sticks" is not only deceptive, it doesn't work anymore. Your dealership's old Four-Square might just get you three squares... and a cot.

$1500 PRU It Ain't Rocket Science

The top dealers in virtually every 20 Group exceed $1000PRU in F&I income, and almost every dealer we work with expects their F&I department to be at a minimum of $1000 per retail unit. Yet, each month in dealerships all across the country, there are F&I professionals that routinely achieve $1500PRU! It ain’t rocket science!

Hitting Home Runs In F&I

In baseball, you hear about the five-tool player. In F&I, we call it the four-tool professional, because there’s more involved than just product sales. F&I expert covers all the bases.

Staying Out Of The Courtroom

Whenever the topic of compliance comes up, many dealers and even some experienced F&I Managers sound like MAD magazine's Alfred E. Neuman, "What me worry?" Their typical response is "We've never had a problem. Besides, we always disclose everything on the contract before the customer signs it." My advice to every dealer, and every F&I manager, is worry. Every day, every deal, every customer… worry!

Cash Customers Buy Too

"Cash customers are the lepers of F&I. Nobody wants to go near 'em because they eat away at penetration percentages and profits. Yet cash buyers buy F&I products too. In fact, if customers can pay cash for a vehicle, they can easily pay cash for F&I products."

Customers Relate To Tire & Wheel Mishaps

"Junk on the USA's roadways causes at least 25,000 wrecks and more than 80 deaths a year, a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found. The study is the first to look at debris from vehicles, a problem U.S. drivers endure daily." - USA Today

Using All The Tools In Your Toolbox

"Every occupation requires specialized tools designed to increase an individual's effectiveness and allow them to deliver professional results. Even the most experienced and knowledgeable mechanic can't fix anything without any wrenches. Professional F&I managers also have tools they must use to do their job effectively as well."

Video F&I Presentations Use 'Em or Lose 'Em?

"Dealers and F&I managers are always looking for a magic bullet - that new product, sales technique, word track or close that will easily get customers to buy F&I products. The latest magic bullet is the video F&I product presentation."

Wanted -- Jack Of All Trades

An F&I manager must perform a broad range of duties, including helping customers, interacting with the sales team and lenders, keeping abreast of changing laws and regulations and maintaining a desired level of dealership profitability.

Creating The Ultimate F&I Pay Plan

"A good F&I pay plan compensates an F&I manager based on productivity. A great F&I pay plan motivates managers to excel, reinforces a dealer's commitment to customer satisfaction, and ensures continuous improvement in F&I productivity and profits. A poor pay plan guarantees lots of turnover, turmoil and Tums®."

Objections Are A Great Thing

"Customers do not buy how good you are at what you do. They buy how good you are at who you are." - Harry Beckwith,

Selling The Invisible Objections are inevitable in any selling situation. An F&I professional must be capable of capitalizing on customer objections.

6 Keys To Increasing VSA Sales

“Every day, F&I managers in dealerships all over the country get the exact same objection from customers when it comes to purchasing a vehicle service agreement, and that objection hasn’t changed in more than 30 years. Yet automotive technology has changed. The standard term of a new car loan has changed. And the way vehicles are manufactured has changed. But the #1 objection to a vehicle service agreement has not changed — the customer doesn’t think they “need” it.”

F&I Products--How Many Is Too Many

"In light of an F&I manager’s limited time with the customer, it’s crucial to offer a menu filled with beneficial products geared for your customers’ needs."

Lender Leverage

“Figure out exactly what your lenders consider creditworthy and
show them how your customers fit the bill."

"As an F&I professional, you have a responsibility to your dealership and sales force to obtain approvals for as many deals as possible. Your primary consideration must be to develop a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between your dealership and its finance sources"

All Menus Are Not Created Equal

In recent years, virtually every company that provides F&I training and the majority of dealerships have embraced the use of a menu in the F&I office. Unfortunately, all menus aren’t created equal. The best menus are professionally designed and custom-tailored to the dealership. They help the F&I manager sell more products while protecting the business.

As The GAP Widens

"With the fast-growing number of upside-down car loans, Guaranteed
Auto Protection is an obvious necessity for many customers. GAP protects them
from a deficiency balance in the event that their leased or financed vehicle is
declared a total loss due to accident or theft. If a total loss occurs and there’s a
difference between what a customer receives from his or her insurance carrier and the net payoff, the GAP provider will pay the balance, less exclusions and excess deductibles."

Turn On Your Team Turn Up Your Profits

“The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you awayfrom the four guys who haven’t made uptheir minds.”

— Casey Stengel

"Some days it seems like that is what we’re trying to do in the F&I office. Keep the new sales peoplewho haven’t made up their mindabout F&I away from the oldtimers who view ourproducts as a rip-off, and sales managers whotreat F&I as a secretarial service for the sales department."

Magic Words

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” — Mark Twain

"Words are powerful tools that can arouse emotions, transfer knowledge, and move a customer who “doesn’t need any of that stuff” to buy multiple F&I products. The words we use, and how we use them, determine the outcome of every customer interaction. Some words are truly magical in their ability to help discover customer needs, create customer interest in a particular product, demonstrate the benefits of that product for a customer, and ultimately, get them to buy the product."

What We've Learned About Menu Selling

“A professional F&I manager has a responsibility to the dealership — and to a customer — to review all of the customer’s repayment, risk management, and vehicle protection options, so they can make an informed decision about the options available in connection with their purchase. A menu-based presentation allows us to do that in a minimum amount of time, and takes the pressure out of the process. A menu doesn’t sell anything. It’s a piece of paper… not a magic bullet. What it will do is get all of the customer’s options on the table, so you can discuss with them why — in their particular situation — each product is especially important.”

New Rules for Quoting Payments

“In today’s dealership, everyone involved in the sales and F&I
process has a responsibility to ensure the customer is provided with the information they need to make an informed decision about the purchase and financing of their new vehicle.

Sales people, sales managers, and F&I managers all need to understand
what they can and cannot do when it comes to quoting monthly payments."

F&I Professional Or Pretender

There are four characteristics common to successful F&I departments:

1. Dealer commitment to the F&I department and F&I products.

2. Established and consistent F&I processes and procedures.

3. A comprehensive and continuous F&I training program.

4. A professional who truly believes in his or her products.

Best Practices Bigger Profits

You cannot achieve F&I excellence if you’re willing to accept F&I mediocrity. You only get superior performance when you expect superior performance.

“Set and demand standards of excellence. Anybody who accepts mediocrity — in school, in job, in life — is a person who compromises. And when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises.”— Charles Knight,CEO, Emerson Electric

Shut Up You'll Sell More Stuff

In the past, the primary focus of the F&I process was on selling products, not on helping customers. The old way of selling F&I products required spewing forth benefit after benefit until the customer, presumably overwhelmed by the tremendous value of whatever product was being pitched, could not help but buy. It also meant that the F&I manager did most of the talking.

You Got To Make 'Em Thirsty

Early in his career, a young car salesman, after losing a sale he thought was a sure thing, said to his manager, “I guess it just goes to show you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The grizzled old veteran replied, “Son, it’s not your job to make customers drink. It’s your job to make ‘em thirsty.”

16.3 Ways To Explode F&I Income

It seems F&I products and past practices are under attack from all sides. Fortunately, new F&I products and sales processes offer tremendous profit opportunities.

"Who Moved My Cheese?” Change happens. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the automobile business, and especially in the F&I office.

One Picture Is Worth $1000

A professional financial services manager must be capable of making customers thirsty to learn more about every F&I product, and then help them “see” themselves in a situation where the product would be of benefit to them, so they will want to buy these products. Involving the customer in the presentation allows them to self-discover the value of these products.